Ready to launch these papers off the roof

[itsallovernow]

Am editing still - for real at the moment. A glossary of Eduspeak that is the baby of one of our writers. While educators do indeed have their own twisty vocabulary, I don't have any desire to edit a glossary of said vocabulary. But this document desperately needs it. I want to be editing my own baby.

However, Rabbit Songs is coaxing me gently through my irritation. Everyone should own this album. You want more proof of this? Go here.

From When I Was Drinking: (Lyrics - dan messe, vocals - sally ellyson)

when I was drinking
when I was with you
living it up when the rent was due
with nothing and no one to live up to

you and me dying on the vine
holding hands and drinking wine
now i'm not the same girl I left behind with you

twelve bars behind us
and twelve bars to go
bottles of beer lined up in a row
one for each hour you didn't show

you and me dying everyday
getting high just to pass away
but that's not the reason I couldn't stay with you

now I am sober
now i'm alone
three years have gone by since you have gone
letting you go
letting me go on

but i'll raise a glass now to you and me
to lift me higher so I can see
which of these blessings are killing me

This song is so lush, so sweet and restrained with these really slow, sad lyrics, just unbearably lovely.

And, on a random note, while I am not at all envious of Sydney Bristow's wardrobe, I'd run over a small child for Julia's clothes. Ok, maybe not technically run over, but I'd think about it if it would get me that pink coat.

Have also decided to reread the edition of The Odyssey that my dad gave me for Christmas several years ago, the poetry translation by Robert Fagles. And I found my cold open:

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
Driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
Many pains he suffered, heartsick on an open sea,
Fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove-
The recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
The blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
And the Sungod blotted out the day of their return.
Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
Start from where you will – sing for our time too.

It's a good translation. Far better than my Oxford Classics edition, although it's slower going. Fagles loves the richness of the language, the playfullness of the orignial Greek. I like that.

Comments

[haphazardmethod.livejournal.com]

I'm still so traumatized years later by the endless descriptions of spears through the eye in the Iliad that I never picked up the Odyssey. Fagles, you say?

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The Odyssey is a lot more action oriented and less bloody, and has some great imagery of women. (My all time favorite class in college was called Women in Classical Antiquity and we broke down all of the classical stereotypes of women starting with the Odyssey. Odysseus doesn't come off very well, but it increased my adoration for the book:) But the Fagles translation is gorgeous and it's a romp.